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How to Fill a Melting Pot

Houses along Astor Avenue in Allerton, whose diversity is hard to top even in a place like New York.Credit
Niko J. Kallianiotis for The New York Times

New York has immigrants from 148 countries, at least by the city’s count, and it seems a number of the more successful ones eventually make their way to Allerton, whose diversity stands out even in an extremely multicultural field.

“It’s a neighborhood full of hard-working immigrants, and they all take so much pride in their homes,” said Shasa Rogers, explaining why her mother, Audrey, who is originally from Jamaica, bought a two-family home on Radcliff Avenue in Allerton eight years ago.

The neighbors are Italian, Chinese and Barbadian, and “everybody pitches in and helps one another,” said Ms. Rogers, who lives in Jersey City but drops in often.

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2445 Esplanade Avenue A three-bedroom two-and-a-half-bath home with a basement apartment, listed at $449,000. (914) 262-4446Credit
Niko J. Kallianiotis for The New York Times

In fact, an Italian neighbor helped build several benches in the yard. “The man from Italy speaks very little English,” she added. “It was one of those things where both families said, ‘This is what New York is all about.’ ”

With about 58,000 residents, Allerton is so large geographically — almost a square mile — that it really has two areas with distinct characters, though both are long on diversity. The western portion of the neighborhood, settled early last century by East European Jews, has one of the oldest co-ops in the city, a rent-stabilized complex now called the “Allerton Co-ops.” The eastern portion was populated over the same time frame mostly by Italians, along with a mix of Irish, Jewish and Greek immigrants.

That diversity has only increased. Though African-Americans predominate in the western portion, there is a sizable Puerto Rican community, along with groups from Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Albania, Cambodia and other Asian nations, and various African countries. Eastern Allerton still has many Italian-Americans, along with new immigrants, particularly from the Caribbean.

Rozetta Williams-Mitchell, a 15-year resident, finds something remarkable in the coexistence of all these identities. “We have Italians on my block, Jews, Hispanics, Jamaicans, Albanians,” she noted. “It’s a little bit of everything, but it’s very quiet, and we’ve been very happy here.”

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610 Waring Avenue, #4P A two-bedroom one-bath condo with hardwood floors in a 1957 building, listed at $189,000. (718) 697-6810Credit
Niko J. Kallianiotis for The New York Times

But, now eager to be nearer to relatives in the South, Ms. Williams-Mitchell has listed the three-bedroom brick home on Waring Avenue where she raised her two children. She is asking $489,000.

There is drug-related crime, mainly in western Allerton, but as for major crime, the 49th Precinct, which covers Allerton, Van Nest and Morris Park, has one of the lowest rates in the city.

In any case, as Janice Walcott, the head of the Allerton Co-ops Tenants Association, noted: “Sometimes with the crime, people say, ‘I’m moving.’ And I always say: ‘Where are you going? Where are you going to go where you can pay less than $1,000 a month for a two-bedroom apartment and have the Botanical Garden you can walk to and a playground?’ ”

Not that there isn’t room for improvement. One boon, says Joe Thompson, a former police officer who has lived here 47 years and heads the White Plains Road Business Improvement District, would be more groups like his. “I’ve encouraged the business owners in Allerton Avenue to form a business improvement district,” he said, so they can “have a much stronger voice.”

What You’ll Find

Because the Bronx went from rural to urban practically overnight by the standard of modern historians, residents don’t always agree upon neighborhood boundaries. In Allerton, they’re often as likely to say they live in a neighborhood associated with the closest main street, such as Pelham Parkway, Bronxwood or Bronx Park East.

In general, Allerton, which is bisected horizontally by Allerton Avenue, is often seen as stretching from Waring Avenue (though some residents say Pelham Parkway) on the south to Gun Hill Road on the north, and from Bronx Park East on the west to Eastchester Road on the east.

Boston Road serves as a dividing line. To the west are high-rises and retail shops, along with four high-rise public housing projects: the Parkside Houses, with 879 apartments; the Pelham Parkway Houses, with 1,266; Eastchester Gardens, with 877; and the Gun Hill Houses, with 733. To the east are one-, two- and three-family homes on quiet, tree-lined, almost suburban streets with relatively little commercial development.

What You’ll Pay

The 2008 real estate crisis didn’t ultimately alter much in Allerton, where home prices fell by about 10 to 15 percent but have since rebounded, said Yolanda Schorr, a resident and landlord on the eastern side.

“The more expensive properties lost a little bit more than the lower-priced properties,” she said, “but they’ve all come back.”

Trulia.com lists about 138 homes for sale in the area designated “Bronxwood” (after a local thoroughfare), which roughly corresponds to the Allerton neighborhood. One-, two- and three-family homes run from about $395,000 to $635,000, said Sonny Vataj, the broker-owner of Exit Realty Power, a Bronx agency that is opening a 30-agent office in the neighborhood.

About 90 percent of the homes are rentals west of Boston Road, but there are some co-ops and condos, particularly closer to Pelham Parkway, Mr. Vataj said. One-bedroom co-ops run about $80,000 to $100,000, three-bedrooms $160,000 to $180,000, he said.

“The condos are a bit more expensive,” Mr. Vataj said, “but the maintenance is much more reasonable.” Currently, a condo building at Waring Avenue and Bronx Park East has one-bedrooms for $230,000 to $250,000 and two-bedrooms in the high $200,000s, he said.

Market-rate one-bedrooms typically rent for $1,000 to $1,150 a month; two-bedrooms for $1,250 to $1,400; and three-bedrooms for $1,600 to $1,850, he said.

The Commute

Allerton residents have access to the No. 2 and 5 subways; the ride to Midtown takes 40 to 45 minutes. Local buses include the Bx26, Bx8 and Bx39, and express buses include the BxM11.

What to Do

To the west, the 718-acre Bronx Park — with the New York Botanical Garden and the Bronx Zoo — is a magnet for many New Yorkers. To the east is the popular Pelham Bay Park, which has almost 2,800 acres. Connecting the two big parks south of Allerton is a 109-acre strip of greenway called Pelham Parkway, which residents use to walk dogs and cycle. There are stores on Allerton Avenue, as well as White Plains, Boston, Williamsbridge and Eastchester Roads. But the nearby Bay Plaza mall, also popular with residents, is currently under expansion.

A devotional site for some and a curiosity for others is Our Lady of Lourdes Grotto at 833 Mace Avenue, a reproduction of the grotto in Lourdes, France, where some believe the Virgin Mary appeared in the mid-1850s. Pilgrims travel from all over to be cured at the grotto, said Sal Castorina, the president of the Allerton Avenue Homeowners and Tenants Association. “There are a lot of crutches there,” he said.

The Schools

Public School 89 on Mace Avenue, which runs through Grade 8, got a C on its most recent city progress report. Christopher Columbus High School on Astor Avenue teaches Grades 9 through 12; SAT averages last year were 367 in reading, 361 in math and 353 in writing, versus 434, 461 and 430 citywide.

Allerton has parochial schools, including St. Lucy’s on Mace Avenue and Holy Rosary School on Arnow Avenue, both for prekindergarten through eighth grade.

The History

There was little development in the area until the 1920s, when the subway was extended up White Plains Road, said Lloyd Ultan, the borough historian. The presence of bedrock facilitated high-rise development in the western part of Allerton (which was named for an early settler); the eastern portion, its geology being less suitable for such purposes, ended up lower-slung. “Technologically at the time,” Mr. Ultan said, “you didn’t have the ability to build high-rise buildings on that kind of sandy subsoil.”

A version of this article appears in print on June 16, 2013, on Page RE8 of the New York edition with the headline: How to Fill a Melting Pot. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe